The following message was sent to Morgan White to share with Carbon Credit Fund Administrators by Thurman Etchison, the Assistant Director of Dining - Facilities and Equipment, on November 18, 2021. The email & attachments contain important information regarding the potential installation of a Grind2Energy system at LAR:

Carbon Credit Fund Administrators,

Housing Dining Services is seeking funds to add a Grind 2 Energy system to our Lincoln Avenue Dining Hall. Grind 2 Energy is a system that allows us to put our food waste into a pumpable slurry so that it may be taken to an anerobic digester at the Urbana-Champaign Sanitary District. These systems replace the aerobic digesters we previously had in our dining units. The aerobic digesters had issues with the effluent not meeting EPA standards.

This system would be our fifth and likely final system as we would have one at every residential dining location. These are operational at Ikenberry, PAR, FAR and ISR. Currently, University Housing does not have resources to fund this project due to the impact of COVID on our budget. We would reach out to the Student Sustainability Committee for funding but for us to do the infrastructure work and have the unit installed prior to the next school year, we need to start before the next round of submissions.

The use of Grind 2 Energy has been a very successful program for us. It meets our needs, keeps us in compliance with regulatory bodies, is comparable in costs to other methods of disposal. It is very sustainable in terms of the environment. To date, we have diverted 289 tons of food waste even though there was limited use until this school year.

The amount we are requesting is $133,538.00. A simple breakdown of our expected costs is below. As our tradespeople have installed the 4 previous units, we believe this number to be very accurate. Our last unit came in within $1000 of our estimate.

LAR Grind 2 Energy – Preliminary Budget Cost

• LAR Grind 2 Energy System (equipment and labor)…..................................................................... $86,000
  • (Rigging fees)........................................................................................................................... $4,650
• Concrete Slab Work (existing planter modifications site work & new concrete slab)….................... $23,100
• New Wall at Table (Demolition, floor work, ceiling work, MEP & new wall)…................................... $19,788
• TOTAL:                                                                                                                                              $133,538

I would like to add that these units are highly visible on campus and it is our intention to start highlighting the metrics in our dining units via electronic messaging. This may include digital displays, The Housing Insider and social media platforms. There is also great deal of interest in biogas impact from these units. I have met with 2 groups of students from the CEE 190 class about these units in the past month.

In short, this program reduces carbon emissions, produces fertilizer and creates energy. The systems are highly reliable and have had almost no issues to date. Please see the attachments for additional info.

Thank you for your consideration, 

THURMAN ETCHISON

Assistant Director of Dining - Facilities and Equipment

The link was updated for the primary Bee Campus USA page and some adjustments were made to links that were not responsive. The following links were added in the Bee City/Campus USA main page: 

http://beecampususa.web.illinois.edu/

https://www.facebook.com/Bee-Campus-USA-at-UIUC-228849297661692/

https://www.beecityusa.org/what-is-a-bee-campus.html

From: Moore, Meredith Kaye

To: White, Morgan

Recipients: mbwhite at illinois.edu

Hi Morgan,

I think we should add a project page on the Portal for “Reusable To-Go Containers” under “Decrease Wasteful Practices Through Behavior Change”. Then, the “Bevier Café Reusable Carry-Out Program” project could go under the “Reusable To-Go Containers” page, and a new project can be made for “Dining Hall Reusable Carry-Out Program” along with the subsequent locations that implement similar programs. What do you think?

Thanks!

Meredith

Roman Makhnenko explains that there are available funds from a SSC sponsored project that can be used to to buy a compost tumbler for the Newmark Civil Engineering Building. Additionally, Roman wants to discuss with Meredith where the tumbler should be emptied once it gets full. 

On July 26, 2021, the Zero Waste iCAP Team met to discuss Reusable Dining Options. In this call, Thurman Etchison, Justin Holding, Meredith Moore, Alexa Smith, and Avery Maloto spoke about a reusable to-go container program that is scheduled to launch at the beginning of the Fall 2021 semester.

Key takeaways from the call include the purchase of 10,000 reusable containers that will soon be available at Ikenberry, ISR, and LAR dining halls.

See the attached file to read the meeting notes.

University Dining purchased 10,000 reusable containers for use this upcoming fall!